So Bethesda just posted this on their Facebook and Twitter. It's the official Fallout site, with everything replaced by the classic Please Stand By Image, and a countdown that ends tomorrow at 10:00 am EST. This isn't Survivor 2277. Unless a very dedicated hacker took control of every Bethesda PR account ever, this may just be real. Will post updates on this thread as they come.

So what, I just type something in here and it shows up as my signature?

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I'm really excited. I have completely lost faith in the video game industry after several games failed to meet my expectations. Needless to say, I absolutely hate the direction game designers are going with their microtransactions, anti-open world, anti-RPG, pro-1st/3rdperson shooters, and of course a major lack of content. I find myself watching trailers thinking "This looks fun...but I'm not going to pay $60.00 for a 8hr scripted game with no replayabillity." Finally, we see another beth game.

Graphically, I'm predicting a major breakthrough. A lot of people were in awe over skyrim's graphics but, to me, it looked dated. Skyrim just threw a bunch of high resolution textures and models together and plopped them onscreen. I've always said it, high-res textures does not make a game look good. If anything, and this was especially true for skyrim, objects in the world just stand out and look overdetailed if you miss out on more important graphical aspects such as lighting. For some reason, I have the utmost confidence in Fallout 4. No idea why, but this game is going to look great, I'll call it right now.

Gameplay-wise, you know I get more and more dissapointed everytime beth releases a game. Just to be clear, I don't blame beth at all. When you throw things together like improved graphics, animations, dynamic NPCs, and voice acting you're bound to miss out on some of the old mechanics. Skyrim surprised me when they introduced a new combat system revolving around using both hands individually, I can't wait to see what Fallout does!

The only thing I'm worried about is the storyline...Morrowind was really, truly the last bethesda RPG with a good storyline. It was original, some aspects of Morrowind might look familiar but the entire story and lore itself was spectacular. I actually enjoyed reading all the books; it felt very game-of-thrones-y with its behind-the-scenes politics and such. Then, beth went way downhill with story. In oblivion, we closed the oblivion portals and defeated a daedric prince. Might be interesting, if that wasn't the entire storyline in a nutshell. In Skyrim, we fought dragons (with VERY quirky mechanics) and killed another god, and that was the story in a nutshell. Fallout 3 was close, but I didn't really know what was going on in the world. I knew bombs dropped and the government was in turmoil and factions spread up across the land, but it was a very broad storyline that didn't center on any details whatsoever. Even the mainquest was a little...dull. Fallout new vegas (which was technically obsidian not bethesda) had a good storyline, but it didn't feel like a beth RPG where you play as a hero or a savior. You played as some kid who took control over a small group of people and...thats it. They could have made it a lot more interesting by giving you options about expanding out, or defending it from outside force. Instead it unoriginally threw in an evil, good, and 2 more endings that were purely cinematic and only involved the new vegas town itslef which consisted in less than a hundred people. I didn't feel important AT ALL. I worry that Fallout 4 will suffer in the same way. They'll either copy some other story (Dragons, Mad Max's water crysis, demonic portals, etc.) or they'll fail to make the world feel real (no books in fallout 3).

Although...even if the storyline is disappointing like the last few beth games, does it really matter? The whole point of an RPG is to make up your own story about your character, and as long as my character feels unique, I'll tolerate a bad storyline.

Regardless, I'm very excited to to see beth's reveal trailer. It's going to be a great ride. I haven't bought a video game in 2 years, and now I've got two games I can't wait to get my hands on (the second being Xcom 2 in NOV 2015!)

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I would love to have this in my collection, but after the whole paid mod fiasco with between Valve, and Bethesda I will not be paying any money at all for any future Bethesda games, nor will I be purchasing any games via Steam any more. Both companies have lost my respect, and my support. So sadly I'll be missing out on this one.

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Drakkmore wrote:I would love to have this in my collection, but after the whole paid mod fiasco with between Valve, and Bethesda I will not be paying any money at all for any future Bethesda games, nor will I be purchasing any games via Steam any more. Both companies have lost my respect, and my support. So sadly I'll be missing out on this one.

Ah I know to a lot of people, myself included, mods havebeen the pinnacle of beth games. But honestly, that's not really the case anymore. Back in the day, it was entirely possible for Morrowind modders to make mods that rival'd beth's work. Now that beth is a huge company with lots of employees with professional soft and hardware with professional training...I don't think this is the case anymore. Beth makes the games and our mods are really quite petty. I'm not saying there are no good mods left, but mods aren't really...that important anymore. And the ones that are, are the small tweaks that people wouldn't dream of making money for. I'm sure the unofficial patches and all the other essential mods will remain free and the nonessential mods...really aren't that important. TBH, I think paid mods might create a spark in the modding community, adding incentive to make better mods. Not saying I approve, this totally destroys the community and makes the game more expensive if you plan on using them. But it just might be worth it if paying $10.00 introduces a beth-quality expansion pack. I dunno. I would say don't base the game on the mods. Beth will do a fine job with Fallout 4, and most modders will still produce free content.

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I have to disagree with you, Wolf. Since moving to PC, Skyrim has become much more playable for me. First is the mod that gives the auto unlock option to lockpicking, the way it was in Oblivion. Making companions and mounts essential. Those little tweaks really make the difference. Then the mods that makes Skyrim and the characters look so much better- and I haven't even tried ENBs yet and I already have Gigs of screenies. Have you seen the latest in housing mods? They're huge and require SKSE because they have so many useful features. And there's the mods that added the things I wanted so much on console, like Shezrie's kitchens for the Hearthfire homes, Dremora Lord thralls, and so much more. I'm even playing a Dwemer character.

Yeah, I think I'm with Drakk on this one. Fallout 4 might be great, but the idea of them trying to push the paid mods again, and for certain with TES VI, if not with FO4, I'm not looking forward to it. If I play, I'll want the mods and full access to the mods without paying a small fortune, which is bound to happen if they have paid mods and crucial mods like SkyUI are on paywall. It really dampens the spirit.

Daedric_Cat wrote:I have to disagree with you, Wolf. Since moving to PC, Skyrim has become much more playable for me. First is the mod that gives the auto unlock option to lockpicking, the way it was in Oblivion. Making companions and mounts essential. Those little tweaks really make the difference. Then the mods that makes Skyrim and the characters look so much better- and I haven't even tried ENBs yet and I already have Gigs of screenies. Have you seen the latest in housing mods? They're huge and require SKSE because they have so many useful features. And there's the mods that added the things I wanted so much on console, like Shezrie's kitchens for the Hearthfire homes, Dremora Lord thralls, and so much more. I'm even playing a Dwemer character.

Nah I agree with you that the little tweaks mods are the biggest, most important one. Making companions an mounts essential, as well as auto unlock option are very small mods that only require a script or a toggle of a checkbox. These mods will STILL be free, I guarantee it. I mean if some nutjob wants to charge money to tick some boxes in the Creation Kit I bet you someone else will come along and make a free version. Its the mods that add new quests or giant homes that could have a price tag associated with them. The quest mods are really not that great imo. Even Falskaar was...eh. They did a great job making the terrain and environment but the quests and dissapointing voice acting wasn't anything special for me. House mods are unfortunately going to have a price tag, I'll agree with you thats just sad...but I really only need one house per character so I'm sure I'll find a free one and if not, assuming beth's are big enough I'll be happy. If they're not big enough its very easy for me to expand them and add a couple mannequins.

I just want to assure everyone that just because you CAN charge for mods doesn't mean you have to. In fact, well over half the modding community is upset by this change and none of them will be charging for mods. Honestly, people have charged for mods before. I remember there was a vampire mod on the officials for Oblivion that went on a roundabout way of charging money for the mod. He had to release the mod publically but you had to pay for her textures and voice acting files (this was of course legal because it was 100% her work). Just because its easier now doesn't mean you should expect to see a price tag on every mod you click on. A lot of people mod for fun, they wont charge for it. A lot of people mod for popularity and/or to prove to themselves or others they can. Putting a pricelock on a mod means you cut your downloads to ~1%. Modders won't be making a lot of money, anyone that mods for money will find themselves bankrupt very quickly.

One last thing, the best modders, mod for fun not popularity, money, or even just way too much freetime. The best modders are the ones that enjoy it for what it is and don't care how many people download it. We might get a few stuckup kids who make a mod and charge money for it but I say good riddance. At least now I'll see the price tag and be able to ignore it without reading through to find out its just another dumb mod :p

I'm not saying its not a sad age for the modding community, but it isn't the end of it either and just because theres no mods, doesn't mean you can't enjoy the game. And I for one, love mods.

EDIT: Oh and apparantly, currently, paid mods were cancelled. Valve rejected the idea, only an hour after bethesda put up a blog post defending it. This doesn't mean it won't re-appear, you never know.

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I can assure you that they will try to re-implement it again in one way or another. Valve,and Bethesda were planning the whole fiasco for three years,and they won't give up that easily about it. It may be gone now, but I guarantee it will return.Lets take a look back 13 years: Morrowind had official Mods made by Bethesda, and they were free for download right from their site, and from PES. Sure they charged for the expansion packs Tribunal, and Bloodmoon. I have no problems with them charging for expansion packs, they were like whole new chapters to the game, but the little mods that they released as Official Mods were still free, and I liked that a lot, that's the way it should have been from the beginning. Oblivion comes along, and with that went out the window for free Official mods. Instead you get Horse armor, which should have been a free Official Mod. There were the player strongholds for some of the different classes that the player could choose from. Those were also charged for, and should have been free Official mods. I gladly paid for Shivering Isles, and The Knights of the Nine. they were Expansions of the original game whole new chapters filled with quests, and fun things to do. Skyrim: Nothing at all like the Official mods from Morrowind days, instead you get things like Hearthfire, which seems to me like the charged for player stronghold mods from Oblivion. I didn't pay for that one, but it was gifted to me on steam so I use it. Then you get Dawnguard, and Dragonborn, two great expansion packs that I again gladly paid for. They had decent story-lines, and the return to Solstheim was fun for me. Again though I feel Hearthfire along with the player stronghold of Oblivion ought to have been free. The Fallout games also had no free Official mods, but instead the DLCs were somewhat maybe worth it. The Courier's Stash though ought to have been a free Official mod in my opinion. I'm sort of torn on my thoughts on some of the other DLC for the Fallout games....

What I'm saying though as Bethesda has been moving towards the trimming out of the free modding for their games for thirteen years. I highly doubt that they will give up getting money for mods so easily. I would not be surprised to see some sort of charge to acquire the CK in future games from Bethesda, and I would not be surprised if their team of professionally trained programers finds a way to limit where one can upload mods to. I would rather see an Official Bethesda run Mod hosting site where there is no middle man taking a third of the profits from sold mods, and I would rather see a more far distribution of profit for the modder then what they tried pulling with Valve, but I don't know if that will happen. My loss of respect, and the decision to never buy another Bethesda game, or never purchase a game through Steam comes from the poor treatment towards the modders involved on the parts of both Bethesda, and Valve.

I can not support any company that screws it's fanb-ase the way Bethesda,and Valve did.

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Judging by which modders went for the paywall, there's going to be a problem at least for me. For example, Shezrie put her mods up for paywall. She's the one who made the kitchens for Hearthfire that makes it possible to have the other options instead of sacrificing a wing for the kitchen, etc. If the paywall stuff stayed and I didn't have her kitchens in my archive, so forth and so on. The same with texture packs. One fantastic ENB calls for a texture pack that was put on paywall. Stuff like this can add up.

Sure, there will be free mods, and some of them really good, like those by Cabal120, or Frank Family, Mr. Dave, but there won't be that wide range of options like before without having to budget some money somewhere. As for a house mod, I'm going to end up making my own anyways. But modding isn't going to be the same.

The way the Creatiion Kit came out did seem a little funny. Yeah, it makes sense now, they were building up towards paid mods. And they will try it again.

Personally, I'm going to wait and see what happens at E3 before I think about cutting off all ties. I'm not going to render judgement before I even see a cinematic trailer. As long as Valve and Bethesda have backed off, I'm willing to support them for now. If paid mods make a comeback, I'll react accordingly. If Valve re-implements them in non-Bethesda games, I'll just move over to GoG and maybe lower myself to Origin. If Bethesda decides to screw us all over again, you can bet that they won't be getting a dime from me as long as they continue to do so. But voting with your wallet requires that, once they do what you want, you open your wallet for them again. Otherwise, they'll accept that they lost you as a consumer and assume that whoever is left didn't care about it either way, opening the door for paid mods/crappy DLC/whatever to come back.

Wolf wrote:Ah you beat me to it maiq; also long time no see? :p

I graduated last week, so I have plenty of time on my hands until Fall. Welcome back to Great House Maiq.

Edit: Also, why am I undefined? I mean, it's a good title and I'll take it, but I don't think it's supposed to be there.

So what, I just type something in here and it shows up as my signature?

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I understand and admire your position Drakk. Giving up a game because you stand for something is admirable. I still think you should ignore paid mods for this game, but I see where you're coming from and I respect it. Also maiq, you won't say anything until the cinematic trailer? You do realize cinematic trailers are just a rendered movie showing off...something thats not actual gameplay and calling it the game. Its like false advertising at it's best :p. I can't wait till E3 though, either. Also interested in the release date. Is it going to pull an Xcom and come out this year or is this a nov 2016 title?

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I know that Wolf, I'm using hyperbole. In reality the cinematic trailer does provide some information, such as the setting, but it doesn't say much. If i made my final judgement before I even saw that tiny sliver of information, I wouldn't be making an informed decision.

So what, I just type something in here and it shows up as my signature?